CURTAIN UP!

Lucy On Stage ~ Act 2

Lucille Ball’s dream was to appear on Broadway. That dream become a reality in 1960, but ended prematurely. if Lucy couldn’t be on Broadway, Broadway would come to Hollywood – on Lucy’s new TV show “The Lucy Show.”

THE CHARLIE CHAPLIN SKETCH

“Chris’s New Year’s Eve Party” (1962) ~ When Lucy’s daughter’s New Year’s Eve party is a dud, Lucy and Viv revive it with their silent movie sketch featuring Lucy as Charlie Chaplin. Not exactly a full scale show, it is still performed for an audience – Chris’s teenage friends.

Lucy is joined by Viv as a flapper, Harry (Dick Martin) as a waiter, and Eddie (Don Briggs) as the thug. The entire presentation is done without dialogue to honky tonk piano music.

“VOLUNTEER VANITIES” / “ANTONY & CLEOPATRA”

“Lucy Plays Cleopatra” (1963) ~ After the Danfield Volunteer Fire Department’s charity revue “Volunteer Vanities” is cancelled, Lucy stars as the Queen of the Nile opposite Professor Gitterman in “Antony and Cleopatra”.

For the aborted “Volunteer Vanities” the women sing an original song called “Hello” to the tune of “Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay” which is a traditional vaudeville and music hall song. The song’s first known public performance was in the 1891 revue Tuxedo. Joining Lucy and Viv in the “Vanities” are Mary Lou (Hazel Pierce), Frances (Mary Wickes), Audrey (Mary Jane Croft) and Colleen (Renita Reachi).

Professor Gitterman (Hans Conried) says he is scheduled to do excerpt from his readings from Cyrano de Bergerac for the Danfield Literary Society. He is referring to Edmond Rostand’s 1898 stage play. Gitterman (who also directs) says that Lucy needs to project so that the people in the back row who paid $4 can hear her.

Viv is assigned the roles of Mardion, Diomedes and Fulvia. She notes that Fulvia dies before the play begins and says the combined speeches of Mardion and Diomedes amounts to “Hark!” “ Begone! and “Fie!” Professor Gitterman mentions that he did some ‘improvements’ to Shakespeare, so although Viv seems to be exaggerating about the paucity of dialogue, the characters’ lines may indeed have been greatly reduced.

“ANNUAL BOY SCOUT SHOW” starring Ethel Merman

“Ethel Merman and the Boy Scout Show” (1964) ~ Lucy and Viv recruit Ethel Merman to star in their sons’ Boy Scout Show and the group discovers that there’s no business like show business!

LUCY: You’d think she was the biggest star on Broadway.

VIV: She is.

The show tributes vaudeville, silent films, talkies, Broadway musicals, radio, and television. It consists of the following acts:

Sherman (Ralph Hart) does an acrobatic dance routine
Jerry (Jimmy Garrett) tells a joke
Merman, Lucy, Viv and Mr. Mooney sing “There’s No Business Like Show Business” from Annie Get Your Gun
Lucy does a plate balancing act (a repeated gag)
Mr. Mooney and Viv sing “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” (originally to be sung by Mr. Mooney and his wife Irma, had she not had to go to Trenton for the birth of their grandchild)
Lucy, Mr. Mooney, and Ethel Merman perform a silent movie sketch about a husband leaving his wife for another woman
Viv, as Shirley Temple, sings “On the Good Ship Lollipop” from the 1934 film Bright Eyes
A tribute to 1920s stage musicals features Lucy, Viv, Ethel Merman, and Mr. Mooney
Mr. Mooney is a radio host presenting a lady saxophone player (Lucy) from Altoona, Pennsylvania playing “Glow Worm” (badly) from Paul Lincke’s 1902 operetta Lysistrata
A tribute to “The Ed Sullivan Show” and its showcase of variety acts
Ethel Merman sings “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy
Everyone joins in for a reprise of “There’s No Business Like Show Business”

“THE FOUNDING OF DANFIELD”

“Lucy and Arthur Godfrey” (1965) ~ Lucy and Viv convince the star to headline in the Danfield Community Players production about the founding of their town.

The show is to benefit the children’s wing of the hospital. The two-act musical melodrama is set aboard a riverboat in the South. It stars Godfrey as Daddy, Lucy as his daughter Lucybelle, Viv as dance hall girl Bessie, Mr. Mooney as wealthy landowner Conrad P. Field, and Vinnie (Max Showalter) as the Honest-But-Poor Piano Player. The songs for the show-within-the-show were written by Broadway veteran Showalter, Bob Lees, and Peter Walker.

LUCYBELLE: You want me to play hankie-panky with a Yankee?

“THE ART OF PANTOMIME”

“Lucy and Mickey Rooney” (1966) ~ Mickey Rooney takes out a loan from Mr. Mooney’s bank to open an acting school. Lucy and Mr. Mooney each wangle free acting lessons, which culminates in a silent movie sketch.

MR. MOONEY (to LUCY): What in the name of Bette Davis makes you think you can act?

To impress Rooney, Lucy lists her acting credits: Mr. Roberts (in a 1948 play of the same name), MacBeth (in Shakespeare’s tragedy of the same name), Julius Caesar, and Captain Hook in Peter Pan. She fails to mention her experience playing Cleopatra for the Danfield Community Players!

In Rooney’s acting class, Mr. Mooney (wearing a pink table cloth as a toga) rehearses Mark Antony’s famous speech from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”

Lucy revives her Charlie Chaplin impersonation with Rooney as “The Kid”. The Players Showcase also includes Mr. Mooney as the Grocer and Sid Gould as a Keystone Kop.

“THE TAMING OF THE SHREW” / “THE BRICUSSE-NEWLEY SONG BOOK”

“Lucy in London” (1966) ~ In the stand-alone special, Lucy Carmichael travels to London, with Anthony Newley as her tour guide.

Lucy stars as Kate in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew filmed on location at Great Fosters, an English country manor from the Tudor period located in Egham, Surry, just outside of London.

Her tamer is actor Peter Wyngarde as Petruchio, although we never hear or see any actual Shakespeare. But the costumes look great!

At the end of the special, Lucy finds herself at The Scala Theatre on Charlotte Street, off Tottenham Court Road. There she is audience to Newley (a West End and Broadway veteran) in “The Bricusse-Newley Song Book”. The one-man show is presented with lights, scenery, costume changes, and an orchestra. He first sings “Fine Day in London” then “Gonna Build a Mountain” (from The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd). He follows with “Once in a Lifetime” from Stop the World – I Want to Get Off and “Nothing Can Stop Me Now” also from Greasepaint. During “Look at That Face” (Greasepaint) he sings directly to Lucy. He ends the medley with “This Dream” (Greasepaint).

The special takes on a dreamlike quality with Lucy on stage doing a pantomime in a spotlight. The very end of the show, still on the Scala stage, Lucy sings about her “One Day in London”.

“A SALUTE TO AVIATION”

“Lucy and Carol Burnett: Part 2″ (1967) ~ After graduating from flight attendant’s school, Lucy and Carol Tilford (Burnett), participate in a graduating class musical revue in tribute to the history of aviation. The revue also features Buddy Rogers and Richard Arlen, stars of the very first Oscar-winning film, Wings (1929).

The show musical revue features:

Lucy, Carol and the flight attendants sing “Over There” (1917) written by George M. Cohan
Rodgers and Arlen sing “My Buddy” (1922) with music by Walter Donaldson and lyrics by Gus Kahn
Lucy, Carol, Mr. Mooney, Arlen, and Rodgers sing “How ‘Ya Gonna Keep ’em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree?)” (1919) with music by Walter Donaldson and lyrics by Sam Lewis and Joe Young
Lucy, Carol and the flight attendants (as flappers) dance to “Thoroughly Modern Millie” (1967) with music by Jimmy Van Heusen from the film of the same title
Lucy, Carol, and a male soloist sing “Chattanooga Choo Choo” (1941) with music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Mack Gordon
Three male tap dancers sing “Alabamy Bound” (1924) with music by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva and Bud Green
A bride and groom performe “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” (1933) from the film 42nd Street with music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Al Dubin
Six boys and girls sing “Toot, Toot, Tootsie” (1921) written by Dan Russo, Ernie Erdman and Gus Kahn for the Al Jolson musical Bombo
Lucy, Carol and the ensemble perform “Hey, Look Me Over” (1960) from the musical Wildcat with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh. This version has specially written lyrics to suit the setting.
The ensemble performs “The Army Air Corps Song” (1917) written by Robert Crawford

“SPEAK EASY DAZE” starring Joan Crawford

“Lucy and the Lost Star” (1968) ~ Lucy and Viv discover Joan Crawford has no furniture and believe she is broke so they arrange to star her in a show so that movie producers will offer her work.

The charity show is written by Lucille Carmichael and presented by the Good Samaritan Players. It is never clear if The Good Samaritan Players are an actual group or something that Lucy and Viv made up to protect Crawford’s pride.

Lucy plays Rusty, Viv is Cuddles, and Crawford is Cynthia, the new girl at the Speak Easy. Mr. Mooney plays Scarface, a gangster.

The show opens in a speakeasy with dancers performing to “I’m Just Wild About Harry,” a song written in 1921 by Eubie Blake for the Broadway show Shuffle Along. The band briefly plays “Ain’t We Got Fun” by Richard A. Whiting, first performed in the revue Satires of 1920. The last song is “The Charleston” by James P. Johnson, which originated in the Broadway show Runnin’ Wild (1923) and became one of the most popular hits of the decade.

Papermoon Loves Lucy